Recent Book: A History of the Radnorshire Constabulary
| Published date | 01 April 1960 |
| Date | 01 April 1960 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X6003300215 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
average. He
must
be capable
of
learning more
and
he must be willing to
do more.
It
becomes his responsibility to reduce the complexity of the sub-
ject matter into asensibleness
that
can be absorbed, assimilated and retained
by those delegated to his responsibility for education
and
training.
The
chapter sets forth the principles of Teaching, Preparation, Presentation,
Examination
and
Review, in a most readable and concise form. The
author's
notes on gathering material and making an outline for presentation
are
particularly valuable.
The
place of Audio-Visual Aids in teaching is fully explained in
Chapter
IV, while Chapters V
and
VI provide an exhaustive presentation of
Selection and Evaluation Techniques.
The
latter chapters, commencing with
qualifications for police personnel, cover the measurement of intelligence,
the
amount
of formal education necessary for law enforcement, sociability,
tests for personality, and character. Physical condition is also covered
and
the procedure for dealing with police applicants is dealt with at consider-
able
length. Each chapter ends with a bibliography, while the appendices
contain lists of suggested reading for police officers and a glossary of legal
terms.
From
atraining angle, the book should be studied in this country against
the background of
our
standardised method of Recruit, Refresher
and
Higher Training. Many of the ideas are worthy of inclusion in
our
schemes.
The
book, however, is not confined to the Training Officer. Much
of
it is
applicable to general Police Administration and on those grounds alone is
worthy of purchase. J. D.
DAGG.
W. C.
MADDOX:
AHistory
of
the Radnorshire Constabulary.
The
Radnor-
shire Society, Llandrindod Wells.
ANY
INCREASE
in
our
knowledge
of
the history of the British Police Service
is always to be welcomed. One valuable source of reference for those who
study its past consists of the histories of individual
forces-a
source which
is very
far
from complete. Inspector Maddox has made adoubly useful
addition to publications in this field, in that the force whose history he
recounts is no longer in separate existence and might
but
for his efforts
have been deprived of a published record.
The
Radnorshire Force was always
small-its
final strength was
Chief
Constable. Inspector and 20 Sergeants and Constables-s-but its story was
worth telling.
It
was formed after the coming into effect of the County
and
Borough Police Act of 1856 and remained in being until it was amalgamated
with the Breconshire and Montgomeryshire Forces to form the present Mid-
Wales Constabulary in 1946.
It
is worthy of note
that
though in 1857 the
Inspectors of Constabulary reported no less than 120 forces as inefficient
the Radnorshire Constabulary was
not
among them,
and
it never failed to
obtain the certificate of efficiency.
Mr. Maddox has assembled agreat deal
of
useful information
from
local archives; he discusses the beginnings of policing in the area and goes
on to describe the formation and development of the County Constabulary,
recording its conditions of service, its principal operations
and
the work
of
the men who led it.
The
book closes with a tribute to the wives of the officers
who
served in
the
Force-ladies
whose value to the Service can never be overlooked,
especially in County Forces where the policeman's house is far from the
station.
There
is an Appendix showing the names and records of service
of all the men who served in the Force from its inception.
Books of this kind are written with little hope of financial reward and
the costs of publication are often prohibitive.
The
work entailed in gather-
ing and marshalling the material is laborious,
but
in this case it has cer-
tainly been a
labour
of love. Mr. Maddox is to be congratulated on having
made a useful contribution to the published history of the Service and the
Radnorshire Society on having sponsored the book. It must be noted in
conclusion
that
the book is dedicated to the late Alderman T. P. Davies, J.P.,
a moving spirit in the whole project: ahappy illustration of the interest
and affection the
Force
inspired in one of the citizens concerned in its
management.
April-June
1%0
P.I.S.
141
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